The man who 'flew' through the air to light the cauldron at the opening of the Beijing Olympics will be among four public figures to receive honorary degrees from Polytechnic University at its graduation ceremony next month. Olympic medallist turned entrepreneur Li Ning will be joined on the podium by University of Pittsburg bioengineering professor, Savio Woo and business leaders William Fung Kwok-lun and Tsang Hin-chi.

Elderly go back to school

Some of the city's senior citizens had a lesson in life-long learning in action this week when they began courses at City University's Elder Academy. The 38 super-mature students have signed up for 27 undergraduate courses in a programme supported by the Elderly Commission and the Labour and Welfare Bureau. Twenty mainstream students have signed up to a 'buddy scheme' to help their academic elders adjust to university life.

Campus gets stellar replica

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology this week unveiled a replica of an astronomical instrument with a history of some 2,000 years. The bronze armillary sphere, a form of celestial globe used to predict the position of the stars in the night sky, has been installed outside the student halls at the Clear Water Bay campus. The earliest Chinese inventions of the device are believed to stem from the 1st century AD, during the Western Han dynasty.

Recognition for researcher

Research by a Baptist University chemist has been some of the most widely quoted in the past three years. Two papers by chemistry professor Raymond Wong Wai-yeung on the development of 'organometallic' molecules and polymers were listed in the 50 most-cited chemistry articles published between 2005 and 2008.

Honorary doctorates for trio

City University is to award honorary doctorates to a senior judge and two business leaders. Patrick Chan Siu-oi, a Court of Final Appeal judge, is to receive an honorary doctorate of laws in part for his work on reforming the university's governance structure. Honorary doctorates of social science are to be bestowed on Chow Yei-ching, managing director of the Chevalier Group, and Sze Chi-ching, chairman of Hang Tung Resources Holding for their support of education. The awards ceremony is to be held in November.